The third of eight face-to-face consultations about the future of Vocational Education and Training (VET) is being held in Darwin today. Assistant Minister for Education and Training, Senator Simon Birmingham, will be joined by Natasha Griggs, Member for Solomon for today’s round of consultations.
“Our government is embarking upon an ambitious program of VET reform to lift the quality of both training providers and their courses, so as to further enhance the contribution VET makes to the employment prospects of students and the competitiveness of Australia's economy,” said Senator Birmingham.
“Around 23,000 students study VET qualifications in the public VET system in the Northern
Territory, including approximately 3,700 apprentices and trainees. These students and potential employers deserve training that is of the highest quality.
“We want to ensure that taxpayers have confidence the record funding support for VET is delivering improved employment outcomes, higher productivity, greater national competitiveness and stronger economic growth,” Senator Birmingham said.
In coming months, informed by feedback from these consultations, new and streamlined structures for designing and developing the content of training courses will be developed.
These new structures will put industry and businesses at the heart of the process, ensuring training courses best provide the skills required for the jobs of the future.
“Our Government will provide the Northern Territory with $19 million in funding in 2014-2015 to
support the subsidisation of VET training,” said Mrs Natasha Griggs.
“Over the last sixteen months our government has sought to better empower the skills regulator to target dodgy training providers while aiming to ease the red tape burden on good providers,” said Mrs Griggs.
Consultations with Registered Training Organisations, industry, students and key stakeholders will be held in every capital city during January and February.
For details on the consultations and how to register visit: http://vetreform.industry.gov.au/events/national-consultations